All About Us
by RoboticRainboots
Summary: [ALMEI] Three weeks after their engagement is announced, a celebratory ball is held for Mei and Alphonse in the castle. However, the figures of the Xingese court are not too pleased about the marriage, and when insult turns to injury, Alphonse will do whatever he has to do to defend Mei's honor.


Alphonse's hand carefully traces along the small of Mei's back, pulling at the ribbons laced through her dress. The gown is a pale pink with motifs of cranes and flowers stitched into it with white lace and little pearls as a final embellishment around them. The cranes trail from the skirt of her dress up to her chest like they're taking off in flight. It's a rather simple garment compared to the typical get-ups that her half-siblings will no doubt wear and the usual fanfare of the royal court, but on Mei, it doesn't look that way. In Al's opinion, she wears the dress like a goddess, the fabric clinging to her body and draping off her hips like she was born to wear it. As if the stars had aligned just for her to walk in their light.

Mei had walked into Al's room, her hand clutching at the back of the dress, holding it closed, and had asked him if he would lace her up. Of course Al accepted, taking the ribbons and crisscrossing them as he loops them back and forth across her back, her spine like a river and the ribbon-like bridges being built across it, all done with utter care, but not without a little teasing first. She could have asked any one of her attendants to close up the dress for her, but instead, she came looking for his help.

He kisses her neck as he finishes lacing her up and ties it off with a bow, feeling her soft skin beneath his lips. Tonight is the night when things become official. No longer will they be Princess Mei Chang and her esteemed guest Alphonse Elric, tonight they will finally be known as the Princess and her fiancé.

Similar to Mei's garment, Alphonse is also dressed up in his formal wear. His outfit is black for the most part, his tunic closed up with golden buttons down the front. Along it is the same imagery of cranes and plants and the ocean crawling up it, this time in gold which stands out heavily against the black of his garment.

Al takes Mei's hand in his and leads her over to the plush bench at the foot of his bed.

"You excited?" Al asks her as they wait to be called on.

"Am I ever excited for the royal balls? Of course I'm not excited for it."

"Even if it's your ball?"

"_Especially _if it's my own ball." She gives him a mischievous smile, the slight gap between her front two teeth visible.

"Though," Mei adds on to her response, "it isn't just my ball. It's your ball too."

That's right. It is their ball, which Alphonse feels weird about. He's a foreigner here in Xing and they're throwing a ball in his and Mei's honor. It doesn't feel right. He doesn't exactly belong here, not as she does, but he's still being celebrated.

Al's only been to a handful of Xingese balls. Two of the balls for the Lunar New Year and three of the balls Emperor Ling Yao has insisted on throwing in honor of his favorite little sister's birthday (something Mei swears he does just because he knows how much she hates attending those kinds of events).

There's a knock on Al's door and one of the castle attendants steps in. "It's time," he says before stepping back out into the hallway and closing the door.

The couple on the bench stands and Mei puts her arm through Al's and he leads the way out, following the attendant down the maze of hallways and stairs and rooms to the imperial ballroom.

They stop at the entrance when they get there, Al holding his breath. The doors in front of them—the ones that lead into the ballroom's main entrance—are magnificent. They're taller than any Al has ever seen (excluding the Gate of course) and are carved with intricate stories of birds and tigers, a golden phoenix above the handles.

This is it. Al takes a deep breath as the doors are opened by the attendant and they are greeted by a sea of people below them. Al and Mei stand at the top of a balcony with two staircases leading down into the heart of the party, just as interesting and detailed as the doors behind them.

There are hundreds of people standing beneath them on the ground, all dressed in an array of colors, ranging from pollen yellows to the colors of spring leaves to iridescent blues.

From somewhere behind them comes a deep, booming voice, one that scares Al into jumping and then immediately embarrassing himself by it because all eyes are on him now.

"Now announcing Princess Mei of the clan Chang, seventeenth daughter of the late emperor of Xing, favored sister of Emperor Ling Yao and her fiancé, Alphonse Elric," the voice echoes, bringing each and every eye to the couple on the balcony.

They had announced their engagement to the royal court only three weeks ago, and immediately a celebratory ball had been organized for the next full moon. They had announced it after an especially heated debate about creating a proper system of transport that ran through all of the different provinces of the country, not just the wealthier elite ones located closest to the capital. Mei had argued especially hard on this one, and though everyone knew she was the favored sibling of the Emperor, the representatives from the wealthier clans still came down hard on her in opposition.

When the meeting was over and everyone had settled back into their seats, the members of the court chatting idly amongst each other like they hadn't just been heavily debating and insulting each other only minutes before in the railroad debate, Mei stood and announced that she and Al were now engaged. Al could not join her and stand by her side during the announcement, he'd sincerely wanted to, but people who weren't court members were prohibited from entering and so Al had to stay outside and hope for the best.

There hadn't been so much drama in the court for a long time. People were absolutely mortified by the announcement, enraged that the Princess, one of the most important figures in the country, could be in love with a _foreigner._ There was also backlash against Mei for the sake that she and Al's relationship was not a traditional one, not by Xing's standards anyway. Relationships, especially those of people as important as a Princess's, were usually composed of a partner picked out by an advisor or a parent, several months of supervised courting, and coated in several layers of tradition and practice.

People were absolutely scandalized to know that the Princess and Al had been involved long before it was publicly announced. That was almost treason in the court's eyes.

But Mei and Al we're pretty good about tuning out the talk of the court already. They weren't sure how the people hadn't already figured out they weren't in a relationship. They weren't exactly subtle with their feelings in front of others.

They hadn't wanted their relationship to belong to anyone else. They didn't want it to be the next public scandal or a betting game for those who would now be watching them like hawks. They just wanted to keep it as their own, at least for a little while, before the nosy individuals of the court could try and put their greedy little fingers into it.

Al's pulled out of his thoughts as he's led down the stairs. Instantly, they're swept away in the chaos of the party. There's music and laughter and people coming up and congratulating them and wishing them luck for their marriage. Some of them are fake, most of them are, Al can hear the spite dribble from their words and venom in their voices, but he doesn't take it seriously. Who cares what anyone else has to say when Al has Mei?

They dance together for a single song before Mei is lost to the crowd, being swept up in the dance of another as Al swings between woman and woman between the songs.

The hours of the evening skip along faster than Al expects them to and suddenly Al finds the number of people left at the party slowly waning as the moon makes its climb to the height of the sky and then begin its decline.

Most of the crowd left around them is fairly intoxicated, Xing is pretty well known for its fine liquor and wide variety and it's common knowledge that the castle serves only the best from its collection at certain royal events like this one to its guests.

For a second, Mei gets caught up in a conversation with Ling and Al slips away for a moment to get them both something to eat at one of the buffet tables. He hasn't had a chance to eat anything yet and he's sure she's absolutely starving too. The noise in the room has dulled since the height of the evening. He can hear the slow mumbling of those around him and only a soft melody from a few of the instrumentalists in the corner by the balcony.

When he finally makes his way to the buffet, Al grabs two crystal plates with a golden trim around the edges and begins to load the plates with different foods for him and Mei and walk off when he realizes he only grabbed one fork and turns around to go back to the buffet to grab another. He puts his two plates down, searching across the table for a fork when he overhears a man speaking to a woman—presumably his wife—and says something that makes Al's blood boil.

"Can you believe the audacity of the little idiot? To fall for an Amestrian of all people? It's clearly some kind of scheme. You know how the Amestrians are and their history, it's clearly just a trap for them to infiltrate our country and take it from the inside out. And of course the little, stupid princess fell for it." Al hears from behind him and immediately turns around to face the man, but neither he nor his wife notices Al.

The man is slightly shorter than Al and probably nearing his mid-forties. Grey starts to slowly creep into his hair. His outfit is a forest green with magnificent silver accents across it and Al swears he's seen him somewhere, probably in the court, but who he is specifically and the title he carries is unknown to Al.

Al glares hard, but the man still doesn't catch his eyes, so Al turns his back and focuses at the task at hand, willing to let it slide for now in favor of not making a scene. Besides, the man is very clearly intoxicated.

But Al can't ignore it when he next hears the man say, "and not only that, but the little whore didn't even court the man properly. Who knows what happens with them behind closed doors. She's a disgrace to our county and should go back to the little hell she came from."

"Excuse me." Al whips around and steps right up in from of him, "that is my fiancée you're talking about that."

The man in green is expressionless, looking directly into Al's eyes with so much contempt that it only makes Al angrier.

"I don't care who she is, she's a stupid little bitch and a goddamn fool for falling for the likes of you."

_How dare this man speak about Mei like that! He has no right to, he doesn't even know her! Mei is kind and beautiful and has one of the best hearts Al's ever seen and—_

Al leans forward and hits the man across the face.

For a moment the man stands there, looking stunned and Al almost apologizes for his actions when the man lunges at him, punching Al in the face right on the nose. Al feels the blood start to pour from his face, but ignores it and goes for the man again in retribution. He can't stop now.

Al's not usually so brash as to do something like this, not like Brother is. Usually he plans something out first, comes up with a strategy. He's usually good about holding his tongue or not lashing out blindly, but now it seems all sense of his is gone.

What started as an insult about Mei turns into a proper fight with both the man and Alphonse getting several good hits on each other. Eventually, Al is able to get behind the man and shoves him into the table.

With the shove, the man flies back against the table, sliding across its surface to the ground behind it, bringing the table cloths and all the food down around him, properly ending the fight.

Al stands there silent for a minute, rapidly blinking at the scene he has caused and all the faces turned towards him. Even the music has gone silent.

Al searches the crowd for Mei's face and doesn't see her and sighs in relief.

Good, at least she didn't witness the fight.

But right as Al feels two strong sets of arms grab his wrists, he spots her standing on the first step of the marble staircase, a head above the rest, watching him with her wide, midnight-colored eyes.

He can't read her expression right now and it makes him nervous.

Al tries to struggle out of the grasp of whoever is holding him, but they're too strong. He turns back to face them and see the armor of two of the royal guards.

"Get out," the first one says, and Al looks at him in shock.

"What?"

"Get out."

"But this is my—"

"You are being ordered to leave. You either get out yourself or we'll throw you out."

The chatter rises up again and Al walks to the door, shocked that they would throw him out of his own engagement ball. They follow him to one of the doors that leads out to the courtyard and then slam it shut behind him, leaving him alone under the stars.

Al hears the sound of running water and follows it until he finds an ornately carved fountain and sits on the edge of it, staring off into space and asking himself _what just happened?_

He probably shouldn't have started that fight, no, but Al wasn't going to stand by and let that man trash the reputation that Mei has fought so hard for either. Honestly that man deserved it.

Al looks up at the stars and traces the constellations with his eyes. Shit, he probably disappointed her. This was supposed to be good, this was supposed to help her in the public eyes but now Al feels like he's only proven the point of all her haters. He's just shown he is everything bad they thought he would be.

God, he's such an idiot.

For what feels like hours (though is probably only a couple of minutes), Al sits there on the edge of the fountain, listening to the water trickle out from the top and down into the base of the fountain.

"Hey you," a voice interrupts his calm and Al looks over to his fiancée.

"Hey," he says back, having a hard time meeting her gaze.

They both sit there for a moment, looking everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Al wants to say something to her, apologize to her knowing what he did will reflect onto _her _reputation, but he doesn't know how to put it. He's usually very good with his words, he can talk people into circles if he needs to, but it seems the skill has been lost upon him all of the sudden. Al feels her finger lace between his where they rest on the marble side of the fountain ledge and she gives them a light squeeze.

Then, Mei grabs a headkerchief (where did she even get that from, Al wonders) and brings it up to his face, dabbing the blood away from his skin with her right and hand cradling the side of her face in his left.

"Hold still," she says when he wiggles where his face stings.

He doesn't deserve her. She's just too good for him.

She brings her hand away and he sees all the blood smeared all over the cloth which she drops down beside her on the ledge. "There's blood on your collar," she says.

"Are you mad?" he asks, not knowing what else to say. From here he can still hear the easy melody of the music from inside and the muffled voices.

"What? About the blood on your collar?"

"No, about…" he trails off and gestures to the party.

"Are you kidding? I'm _happy _for any excuse to get out of that stuffy, old party," Mei responds with a laugh.

Al laughs too, his heart not completely in it. She could have just been saying that just for his sake for all he knew.

"Why'd you do it? Fight Representative Zhao I mean—"

"He was a clan representative?" Al whips his head up to look at her with comically wide eyes. "Oh shit, I didn't even realize it. Oh fuck, I'm sorry, Mei."

She giggles and the little sound makes him feel like everything is going to be alright for the moment. "It's okay, I never really liked Zhao. He was always such a jerk, only caring about his clan and no one else. He was also a major idiot—but that's not important right now. What did he do to make you fight him like that?"

He doesn't want to tell her what he overheard him say. Al knows it could hurt her feeling if she were to hear that bullshit that the representative spouted about her.

"He said something mean about you so I hit him in the face," Al looks down at his knees. He can feel the color rushing to his face in embarrassment.

Mei lets out a sharp bark of laughter and Al looks up and stares over at her.

"You did that because he said something bad about _me?_" she asks incredulously.

"Well, yeah. You didn't deserve to have your name dragged through the dirt so I hit him."

"Alphonse, you don't have to do something like that for me."

"Mei," Al says, his words and confidence slowly returning to him. "I'm not going to stand by and let people harass you, even if it's behind your back. You don't deserve that!"

She laughs and leans over closer to him, resting her head on his arm.

"I don't deserve _you,_ Al. You're too good for me, you know that?"

Al leans down and kisses the top her head. "That's funny, and here I was just thinking that about _you_."

Al can see her smile and pulls an arm around her shoulders.

"How about we go back to my room and have our own ball," Mei suggests. "One free of assholes and one where we _don't _have to worry about any fights breaking out."

Al gives an embarrassed laugh but nods at her suggestion.

* * *

Mei's room is the size of the entire first floor of the Rockbells' first floor, Al thinks when she softly closes the door behind them. Of course it's the same room he's been in a thousand times, the same one she had when he first arrived here back when he was only seventeen.

She leads him into the big open space in the middle of the room and leaves him to go turn on the phonograph.

Soft musical notes drift out of the contraption, the music slightly muffled. Mei returns back to him after she gets it just right and takes his hand, Al rests his other on her waist.

They spin and they dance, her light pink dress flaring out behind her like a cotton candy cloud, the pearls sewn into it catching in the golden glow of one the lamps and sparkling like stars. She's somehow even more beautiful here in her room than when they were in the ballroom. Here she is her true self, not the Princess who must calculate every move and every word. Here, alone with Al, she is simply a woman in pink, one who loves pandas and sweets. She's a woman who cares more for her people than anyone could ever know. The woman with a slight gap between her teeth and her makeup slightly smudged from the night.

The woman Al loves.

He can only guess what he looks like. His hair messy from fighting, his face a patchwork of bruises and blood, his clothes stained. He isn't exactly the image of the fiancé of a princess like he should be.

But for all that he is, for all the messes he makes and all his faults, he knows Mei loves him, and in turn he loves her even more.

"You promise you're not disappointed?" Al asks, his voice fading out with the music as they sway around the room in time.

"Of course not, Al. I'm not disappointed in you, I promise." Mei smiles at him before leaning forward and attempting to rest it on his shoulder. "In fact, I'm proud of you. Stick it to the man, give the fool what he deserves."

Al laughs and leans down to kiss her head.

"I love you, Mei," he whispers into it.

"Love you too, Al."


End file.
